Information

Australia: What happened to our electricity system in the heat?

Author: Darvin Tocmo
Date Posted:18 February 2019

We still have time to avert the worst impacts of climate change, but heatwaves are now an inevitable part of Australia’s future.

Heatwaves and blackouts have been the talk of the town as temperatures climbed over 40C in all states except Tasmania, and once again the commentariat has gone into a renewable-generated bluster. Chris Uhlmann and Alan Moran blamed the high prices on wind power, Pauline Hanson called for people to use more power and Judith Sloan called demand management a bribe.

There were three notable things that happened with our energy system during what will become the new normal of extreme heat.

1. It was hot

At the end of last week, it was hot. Like, record-breaking, fry an egg on the pavement hot. Many parts of South Australian and Victoria faced their hottest days on record.

As Australians tried their best to stay cool, almost everyone who had an air conditioner switched it on and we experienced a “peak demand” event. This is a period where our electricity system is stretched to its limit and wholesale electricity prices reach their peak.

As our planet warms we can expect more days like Thursday and Friday. While we still have time to avert the worst impacts of climate change, some warming is now locked in and that means the heatwaves we have experienced more than once already this summer are now an inevitable part of Australia’s future.

So what should we do about it?

Australia needs to get serious about reducing climate pollution, which continues to rise and do our contribution to stop runaway global warming.

We can improve our houses and building so they better manage the heat. Australian houses are sometimes called leaky tents; they let in the heat in summer and the cold in winter.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Insulation, double-glazing, draft proofing, better building standards, all these things will keep your house passively cool and reduce (though not eliminate) the amount of air conditioning you need. It’s not rocket science, but currently, we aren’t doing any of this.

We can also upgrade our air conditioners to be more energy efficient. According to energy analyst Tristan Edis, new air conditioners use half the electricity of the majority of air conditioners that were installed in the early 2000s. On hot days, this would make a significant difference.

2. Coal and gas plants failed

Our coal and gas plants are aging. As they age, they breakdown and need maintenance more often. Last week was a case in point. In Victoria, Yallourn power station took one of its units offline for maintenance and another had to be taken offline unexpectedly early Friday morning. Also in Victoria, Loy Yang A had a boiler tube leak just before the heatwave hit and was out for the duration. In New South Wales, Liddell and the Tallawarra gas plants were both offline for many days due to unplanned faults.

These six coal and gas units totaling 2,225MWs of capacity were not available for at least some of the period of Australia’s most intensive heatwave on record.

This is at best a sign that our coal plants are getting old and can’t be relied on at peak times and at worst it was price-gouging behavior by some of Australia’s largest energy companies.

We need to get serious about demand response. Demand response is when households and industry are paid not to use electricity for some nonessential operations for a period of time. While this isn’t a great idea all year round, for a few hours on a few days a year it’s the cheapest and most effective way of maintaining an electricity system. This is standard practice in the US and Europe where they even have markets for demand response. This is urgently needed here but was resisted by rule-maker, the Australian Electricity Market Commission (AEMC), until late last year.

We also need to continue to build new electricity supply in the form of solar, wind, battery storage, pumped hydro and similar.

3. There were blackouts

At the end of last week, we experienced two types of blackouts. First, there were localized blackouts affecting about 25,000 households in South Australia on Thursday night. These were due to fuses blowing in our distribution infrastructure. These fuses are designed to blow when infrastructure gets too hot so that it isn’t damaged. This was the electricity system working as it should. It isn’t surprising given the record temperatures.

The second type of blackout experienced was “load shedding”. This is where the market operator temporarily cuts off some energy users from the system to ensure “system integrity” and to ensure it doesn’t fail catastrophically. In Victoria on Friday afternoon, 160,000 customers were blacked-out over a two-to-three-hour period.

Load shedding is the action of last resort and Aemo did everything it could before taking this path. It fired up emergency reserves, asked big energy users to power down and appealed to us to lower our electricity use.

Australia’s electricity system is incredibly reliable, typically exceeding our reliability standard of 99.998%. That basically means that the electricity supply needed is available 99.998% of the time.

Almost all blackouts in Australia (96.6% according to the AEMC) are because of faults in the poles and wires. What happened on Friday was very rare – only 0.2% of blackouts occur because there isn’t enough operational generation in the system.

However, particularly for people suffering health conditions as well as older and younger people, power outages are dangerous and they aren’t good for business either.

So what should we do about it?

We need more on-demand capacity – there is a need for storage (batteries and pumped hydro) and dispatchable solutions (concentrating solar thermal and demand response), that can turn on and ramp up quickly.

Renewables (hydro, solar and wind) account for about 20% of generation in the National Electricity Market, higher in South Australia. Over the two-day period in question, renewables averaged higher than 20% generation and on Friday afternoon, when power was needed most, a combination of hydro, wind and solar provided over one-third of Victoria and South Australia’s power.

Want to stay in the loop?

We'll keep you updated with the latest deals, so that you'll never miss out!

Popular Categories

Terms & Conditions

Welcome to our website. If you continue to browse and use this website, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy govern Optimus Energy’s relationship with you in relation to this website. If you disagree with any part of these terms and conditions, please do not use our website.

The term ‘Optimus Energy’ or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is 26 Humphries Tce, KILKENNY, SA, 5009, AU. Our ABN is 21 606 745 679 . The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website.

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:

The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.

Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.

This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.

All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, are acknowledged on the website.

Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.

From time to time, this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).

Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of Australia.

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how we uses and protects any information that you give us when you use this website.

We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

What we collect

We may collect the following information:

name and job title

contact information including email address

demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests

other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping.

We may use the information to improve our products and services.

We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.

From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes

if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.